“This is how we do it.” I’m going to take you through exactly how to plan and create a color scheme. As I always say, the color has to come from somewhere. It takes careful planning and knowing the parts and pieces to make a color scheme come together.
For a master suite we start with this gorgeous handmade Cuban Heritage tile from Avente Tile. Check out their blog on the fascinating way this tile is made. This tile is what I call the Color Key, which is the start of any color scheme or palette. We build the entire scheme around. Find something absolutely fabulous and allow it to lead the interior design of the entire space.
As you can see the gallery floor is the connector for the entire master suite. This is why this becomes a great spot for the color key to appear. The Cuban tiles will appear again as an inset in the dark gray/green pebbles on the floor of his bath and shower. Her bathroom floor and tub surround will be in the pinky peachy marble. (In real life the color is the same as what is in the Cuban tile.)
The charcoal gray tones of this wool carpet from Prestige Mills flow perfect from the pebbles in his bathroom into his closet with similar charcoal woodwork on the walls of the custom closet.
For her closet and the master suite this gray/green wool loop from Missoni balances nicely with the green ground of the Cuban tile with gives the area a better flow than if we used one of the other colors.
Next we selected fabrics and other elements to work within the confines of our set scheme. Which can lay out as follows:
- Bedroom walls – Gatsby Gunmetal Deco Wood wallcovering from Phillip Jeffries Ltd.
- Bench at end of bed – Ralph Lauren
- Bedroom club chairs – Pollack Associates
- Iridescent gray glass mosaic tile from Hakatai for his shower walls & short wall in gallery (behind a sculpture)
- Upholstered bed – Donghia Cashmere Velvet
- Drapery from Brunschwig & Fils
- Chair in his closet – Colefax & Fowler
This is the basic groundwork for building a color scheme for a room. Where people get into trouble is starting with a paint color or no direction and finding a great tile after they picked their countertops or woodwork. Work forwards not backwards! Always start with the most fabulous element.
In creating a coordinated look it is vital to know what will go where to know how the items will work together. What you aren’t seeing is about five other carpets which coordinate perfectly but were too jarring when used next to the tile. Having a floorplan really helps this process. A color key allows all the other pieces to fall into place. It gives you a direction. This is the trick to making color schemes work.
